Nvidia GTX 550 Ti Crashing

[Kazus]

Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for any help I can get on this issue. The past couple of days I have been getting some issues with my GPU. No matter what I'm doing (browsing the internet, watching a video, playing a game) the display will get visual artifacts, and the sound will become all distorted. This is usually for a second or two, but sometimes the artifacts don't go away and occasionally the system will just freeze. I've tried reinstalling drivers and reverting to earlier versions, but that didn't help. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[CrispyChips]

Monitor your temps when you start it up with GPU-Z or HWinfo or MSI Afterburner,hope that its just your heatsink clogged with dust and making the card over heat.

If not..sounds like its vRAM is on its way out.

 

[Kazus]

Monitor your temps when you start it up with GPU-Z or HWinfo or MSI Afterburner,hope that its just your heatsink clogged with dust and making the card over heat.

If not..sounds like its vRAM is on its way out.

Unfortunately I'm beginning to suspect it's the card...is there any way I can record how the temperature of the card behaves with HWinfo? The times the freezes and distortion happen are random so I'm not sure when to look at the temperatures.

Edit: I also forgot to mention that I am getting some issues with "no signal" errors from my monitor when I do have the cable plugged in.

 

[Kazus]

Alright I found the issue; the fan stopped spinning altogether. Is it worth fixing a GPU fan, or should I just opt for a new card?

 

[CrispyChips]

You might be able to lube the fan and get some use out of it..but you'll need a replacement fan real soon anyway.

There's a sticker on the back of the fan that hides a hole with a bearing,put a drop of turbine oil or sewing machine oil in it and work it around a few times to see if it loosens. If theres much resistance still,and it doesnt take much to stop them, then your fan is shot.

 

[Kazus]

You might be able to lube the fan and get some use out of it..but you'll need a replacement fan real soon anyway.

There's a sticker on the back of the fan that hides a hole with a bearing,put a drop of turbine oil or sewing machine oil in it and work it around a few times to see if it loosens. If theres much resistance still,and it doesnt take much to stop them, then your fan is shot.

Will do, thanks for the help